They may be over 20 years old, but Tosin Adarabioyo does not hesitate in bringing memories as happy as these to the surface. They are etched in his mind, as though they happened yesterday. It was where it all started. Where the love was formed. Where the dream began.

‘There was a primary school at the back of my house,’ Tosin recalls.

‘Me and my brothers and the neighbours would climb over our gates and play football. It was called Manley Park Primary School. We just used to climb over there and create a pitch with our hoodies or whatever.

‘My brother had some of his friends round, my neighbour had some of his friends round, so we ended up having a good eight-vs-eight game on Manley Park. That is one of my earliest and most enjoyable memories.

‘We grew up in Whalley Range in south Manchester. It wasn't the nicest of places then, but the road I lived on was full of great people and kids that were my age and around my brothers’ age. We just played football all day, every day, whenever we could, wherever we could. They were joyful times.’

Tosin, his two elder brothers and his mother moved from London to Manchester when our defender was very young. He speaks with a Mancunian accent and says the city’s chilled and homely nature ‘definitely represents me’.

He remains eternally grateful to his mother. In those happy early days playing the game, she ferried him to and from training and matches, cooked for him, and passed on her Nigerian culture. Everything she did was for her three boys.

‘We’re very much a Nigerian family and it was a Nigerian upbringing, whether that’s the food or traditionally the way we’ve been brought up, which is a bit different to how it would be here,’ Tosin explains.

‘The food is harder, stuff like pounded yam, stuff that makes you strong!’

Tosin’s brothers, Gbolahan and Fisayo, knew the youngest of the trio was the most talented. ‘Because of that, they always pushed me on, and they still do,’ he smiles.

When Tosin says every possible spare moment in his youth was taken up by football, he isn’t lying. He was four years old when he played for his first club, Chorlton Sports (he never represented Fletcher Moss, as some online sources state). He was in the team at Brook Brent primary school, also in Chorlton in south Manchester. And at the age of five, he began training with Manchester City.

‘I was juggling all of it,’ Tosin says. ‘It was all just enjoyment, playing with school friends, looking forward to Saturdays and Sundays, and getting to put the kit back on and enjoy football.

‘Friday evenings were the main days we would play for City, and the weekends would be local team matchdays. It was pretty straightforward, I didn’t really have to miss one or the other, I got to do all of them, which was great.’

At Under-9 level, the rules dictate you can no longer represent an academy and a local team, so Tosin stopped playing for Hough End Griffins, a club he joined because Chorlton Sports hit financial difficulties. Tosin remembers winning a couple of tournaments with Hough End Griffins, but nothing major. Plenty of silverware would follow in City’s youth teams, though.

Because his home was so close, Tosin never had to live in digs as he developed through City’s academy. He was also fortunate that injuries scarcely hampered his progress, which was impressive from an early on.

Tosin usually played an age group up, and would go on to captain the club’s Under-18s in the 2015 Youth Cup final, won by Chelsea. It was only natural he would soon make his senior debut, which he did in an FA Cup tie at Stamford Bridge aged 18.

Having been in an academy set-up from such a young age, Tosin is well placed to assess what makes the difference; why some players fall away, and why others make the grade.

‘I think the most important thing is managing distractions,’ he says, ‘especially when you start football at five and go all the way through.

‘You see a lot of boys come in and go out, getting released, and it’s just managing those distractions. There are boys who probably still chill with their home boys who probably aren’t doing the right thing.

‘I remember getting to an age, it was probably 13 or 14, and having to make a decision to stay away from that and focus on football. It was mainly keeping my mind straight and not letting any distractions take over me, and remaining focused on what I wanted by not getting carried away by small successes or letting setbacks get to me.

‘I felt like I was always level-headed throughout the academy, and I managed to overcome that stuff. Throughout my age groups, there aren’t a ton of players who are still playing. There are a few in the Football League and a couple abroad. I saw a lot of talented players not reach the levels they wanted to.’

Tosin is one of those who has reached the top. It is testament to the dedication he displayed as a teenager, and the innate quality evident from the moment he first kicked a ball on the streets, fields, and schools near his home.

After 15 years at Manchester City, Tosin left for Fulham in 2020. He did not struggle closing that chapter of his life, instead focusing on what a fresh start could offer him. That decision was most certainly vindicated, and he is now showing his talent in the blue of Chelsea, at a city and with a club that has long intertwined his journey, playing the sport he loves.

‘Football has been my life since I was five years old, probably younger,’ he concludes.

‘It’s been an amazing journey so far. It’s changed me and my family’s life. It’s everything. Everything I do is to be a better player.’

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